thern girls wear
most. There was a constraint over us for the reckoning that we knew was
coming. Each felt guilty toward the other and the result was a formal
politeness. So it was a relief when, just at the last bit of toast, Anne
burst in, all staccato notes of suppressed excitement.

"Cousin Mary! Sally! Sir Richard Leigh is here! He's there!" nodding
over her shoulder. "He walked up with me--he wants to see you both.
But"--her voice dropped to an intense whisper--"he has asked to see Miss
Walton first--wants to speak to her alone! What does he mean?" Anne was
in a tremendous flutter, and it was plain that wild ideas were coursing
through her. "You are my chaperone, of course, but what can he want to
see you for alone--Cousin Mary?"

I could not imagine, either, yet it seemed quite possible that this
beautiful creature had taken a susceptible man by storm, even so
suddenly. I laid my napkin on the table and stood up.

"The chaperone is ready to meet the fairy prince," I said, and we went
across together to the little drawing-room.

It was a bit dark as Anne opened the door and I saw first only a man's
figure against the window opposite, but as he turned quickly and came
toward us, I caught my breath, and stared, and gasped and stared again.
Then the words came tumbling over each other before Anne could speak.

"Cary!" I cried. "What are you doing here--in those clothes?"

Poor Anne! She thought I had made some horrid mistake, and had disgraced
her. But I forgot Anne entirely for the familiar brown eyes that were
smiling, pleading into mine, and in a second he had taken my hand and
bending over, with a pretty touch of stateliness, had kissed it, and the
charm that no one could resist had me fast in its net.

"Miss Walton! You will forgive me? You were always good to me--you won't
lay it up against me that I'm Richard Leigh and not a picturesque
Devonshire sailor! You won't be angry because I deceived you! The devil
tempted me suddenly and I yielded, and I'm glad. Dear devil! I never
should have known either of you if I had not."

There were more of the impetuous sentences that I cannot remember, and
somewhere among them Anne gathered that she was not the point of them,
and left the room like a slighted but still reigning princess. It was
too bad that any one should feel slighted, but if it had to be, it was
best that it should be Anne.

Then my sailor told me his side of the story; how Sally's tip for the
re